IBM and a consortium of leading Russian hi-tech companies and infrastructure organizations have agreed to jointly give a boost to the Russian microelectronics industry, IBM and Skolkovo, one of the consortium members, report.
The centerpiece of the new project is the concept of an Electronics Technology Center (ETC) to be set up in Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion near Moscow. State-owned organizations Rusnano, Rostelecom, and the Russian Venture Company (RVC), as well as IT service provider ITFY, which are also participating in the deal, are expecting IBM to provide a cloud computing system that will enable Russian microelectronics developers and Skolkovo residents to access the world’s most advanced and otherwise expensive computer-aided design software, and make new, more advanced chips for both industrial and household electronics.
IBM will open up its own intellectual property and newest partner technology in semiconductor manufacture to be used by companies via the ETC ‘cloud.’ It is going to be an international hi-tech system accessible from any part of the world, the collaborators claim.
IBM and Skolkovo also believe that providing a series of training programs in electronics design via this ‘cloud’ will be another way of assisting Russian developers and manufacturers. According to Kirill Kornilyev, the CEO of IBM Russia and CIS, using this shared virtual workplace will enable developers to “prepare a new wave of innovation in Russian microelectronics.”
What the project participants already promote as a bellwether deal for Russia is expected to pave the way for top international experts and design centers to team up with Russian companies and help fuel investment in this sector. The agreement may also become a fast track for addressing the current disconnect between Russia’s advancing software sector and its barely visible hi-tech hardware one, believes RVC President Igor Agamirzyan.
The ETC founders hope the ‘cloud’ services now being put together for microelectronics will one day provide an answer to cost reduction and shared technology problems in other sectors as well.
